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15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-15)Barcelona, Spain |
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15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-15)Barcelona, Spain |
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In Berber, tenseness is a phonological feature - not to be equated
with voicing or gemination - which can be added to all consonants
in any word position and context. This study investigates the perceptual
parameter(s) cueing tense consonants (/C*/) vs their non-tense counterparts
(/C/) in initial, medial and final position. We want to find out whether
tenseness is cued by VOT or closure duration for stops, and by the
duration or the intensity of the frication period for fricatives.
The test perception results show that, in the case of /t/ vs /t*/,
the closure duration is the only cue that differentiates phonemically
tense from non-tense consonant in medial and final position. But in
initial position the information is involved in VOT combined with the
following vowel intensity. For fricatives, the perceptual phonemic
cue is the duration of the consonantal frication independently of its
position and context.
Bibliographic reference. Ouakrim, Omar (2003): "A perceptual study of tenseness. some acoustic cues identifying tense vs. non-tense contrast in Berber", In ICPhS-15, 795-798.